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A study featured in The Guardian Monday has found many factors contributing to the downfall of the millennials worldwide. This time, however, it's not because we're "lazy" or "self-absorbed." This study is part of a series The Guardian is doing on what characterizes this generation.

According to the study, "a combination of debt, joblessness, globalization, demographics and rising house prices," is what is stopping us from prospering. Most, if not all, of this can be attributed to the recession that hit the US in December 2007. Between 2008 and 2009, the US lost 8.4 million jobs and the labor market has not quite been the same since. Young adults under 30 in the US generally make less than retirees. And of course, there's the 1.3 trillion dollars of student loan debt we've aggregated.

As if being poor isn't enough, we are also expected to stay at home with our parents. According to Business Insider, the US' housing market's demand for houses is increasingly becoming higher than its supply. This is what keeps renters renting and non-renters on mom and dad's couch. Globally, the housing market is not too promising for young adults.

Business Insider

These factors all contribute to why we are, as The Guardian put it, stagnating in young adulthood. We are "not hitting the basic stages of adulthood" as early as previous generations because of all the hurdles that have been thrown into our paths. Studies show that millennials are even getting married and having children later because of the obstacles we have to face in young adulthood.

Tanaka Mhishi told the Guardian, “We definitely have to make more compromises. Compromises like if I want to have kids by the time I’m 30, or even 40, can I still have the career I want to do?”

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